jacob

Origin:
Hebrew

Meaning:
Supplanter

This name has topped the charts since ’99, and with good reason: It offers both a strong, biblical name (Jacob) and a cool, casual nickname (Jake). Let’s face it: Common as it is, Jacob is a great name. Its popularity, on the other hand, is daunting. It might make you feel better to know that even though it spent about a decade as number one, right now a smaller percentage of baby boys are bearing it, since more names are being used in general. The meaning is also a little iffy: It represents a “heel-grabber” or “supplanter,” stemming from the original Jacob’s days as a fetus -- he was the competitive little infant who emerged from the womb holding his brother Esau’s leg and later conned him out of their dying father’s inheritance and final blessing. On the other side of things though, Jacob did wind up as the patriarch of the 12 tribes of Israel. Once again, you make the call. It was mainly a Jewish name until the Protestant Reformation when Christians (and today, everyone) started using it.